Urodził się w 1866 roku jako syn lekarza Ransforda Everetta Van Giesona (1836–1921) i Sarah Jane Laird Van Gieson (1841–1891)[1][2], w rodzinie o korzeniach holendersko-żydowskich[3][4]. Dorastał w Greenpoincie. W 1885 ukończył College of Physicians of Columbia University[5]. Przez pewien czas uczył się na Uniwersytecie w Heidelbergu[6]. W 1896 został pierwszym dyrektorem Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals for the Insane (w 1929 przemianowanym na New York State Psychiatric Institute). Ponadto, od 1896 do 1901 pełnił urząd Stanowego Pełnomocnika do spraw Obłędu (State Commissioner of Lunacy).
Po pięciu latach z powodu politycznego konfliktu z nowym przewodniczącym NY State Commission on Lunacy został zmuszony do rezygnacji[7]. W geście solidarności, rezygnację złożyła cała kadra naukowa Instytutu[8]. Wystosowany został też list otwarty (Protest of the Friends of the Present Management of the N.Y. Pathological Institute), podpisany przez S. Weir Mitchella, Jamesa J. Putnama, Percivala Baileya, Mortona Prince'a, Fredericka Petersona i innych[9].
Van Gieson powrócił do pracy w New York State Health Department. Praktykował hipnozę, zajmował się również psychiatrią sądową[10][11].
Telangiectiatic sarcoma in the mesenteric glands; intracanalicular fibroma of the mamma; myoma of the stomach; fibroma of the uterus; follicular cyst of the ovary; chronic interstitial oophoritis; healed fracture of the ribs; perforating ulcer of cornea with prolapse of iris (in a bitch). Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 80, 1887
A misplaced kidney. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 171, 1887
Pendulus uterine myoma. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 161, 1887
Multiple diverticula of the bladder, one of which contained a number of small urinary calculi. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 171, 1887
Echinococcus-cysts of the liver and peritoneum in a middle-aged woman. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society
Phosphorus-poisoning. Medical Record 32, s. 113, 1887
Webster D, Van Gieson I. A case of Sarcoma of the choroid with metastatic infiltration of the optic nerve. Clinical history and operation by David Webster. Arch. Ophth. 17, s. 29 (1888)
Fat-necrosis in the pancreas. Medical Record 33, s. 477 (1888)
Accessory pancreas in the wall of the duodenum, simulating a tumor. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 93 (1888)
Acute localized meningitis, pyloric carcinoma and hydronephrosis. Proceedings of the New York Pathology Society s. 62 (1888)
Ira Van Gieson, L. Emmett Holt. A Case Of Spina Bifida With Suppurative Spinal Meningitis And Ependymitis, Due To Bacteria Entering The Wall Of The Sac. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 15, 12, s. 773-781 (grudzień 1890)
Alternate paralysis due to multiple areas of softening in the pons varolii, extracted from the proceedings of the New York Pathological Society, 1890, in Miscellaneous Papers from the Laboratory of the Alumni Association, Department of Pathology, Columbia University, vol 1, 1890-1891, ss. 1-3
Taylor RW, Van Gieson I. Observations on prurigo, clinical and pathological. N. Y. Med. Jour 53, 1 (1891)
A case of traumatic myelitis in the lower dorsal region, with a central column of necrosis extending above the lesions throughout the whole dorsal and cervical regions. Proc. N. Y. Path. Soc. 91 (1891)
A Study of the Artefacts of the Nervous System: The Topographical Alterations of the Gray and White Matters of the Spinal Cord Caused by Autopsy Bruises, and a Consideration of Heterotopia of the Spinal Cord. D. Appleton and Co., 1892
A report of the gross and microscopical examinations in six cases of death by strong electrical currents. New York Med J 55, ss. 1-19 (1892)
A contribution to the pathology of traumatic epilepsy, comprising the report of the microscopical examination in two cases operated upon by trephining. Medical Record 43, ss. 513-521 (1893)
A foreign body impacted in the pyloric end of the stomach. Medical Record 43, 24 (1893)
Van Gieson I, Francis RP. Tumor of the callosum with autopsy. With pathological memoranda by M. Allen Starr and I. Van Gieson. Amer. Jour. Med. Sc. 109, 665 (1895)
Ramson CC, Van Gieson I. Observations on an uncommon form of cutaneous tuberculosis. Jour. Cutan. and Gen. Urin. Dis. 18, ss. 269 (1895)
Remarks on the scope and organization of the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals. State Hospitals Bulletin Utica 1, ss. 255–74; 407–88 (1896)
The smear method and frozen sections in the diagnosis of rabies. Collected Studies, Research Lab'y, N. Y. Dept. of Health (1905)
Diagnosis of rabies. Jour. Pub. Hyg.; Jour. Mass. Ass'n, Boards of Health, XVI, 57 (1906)
Eine sichere und einfache Methode fur Nervensystemstudien hauptsachlich ihre andwendung in der Diagnose und Untersuchung der Negrischen Korperchen. Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., etc., XLIII, Orig., 205 (1906/1907)
↑Lanska D.J.. Classic Articles of 19th-Century American Neurologists: A Critical Review. „Journal of the History of the Neurosciences”. 11 (2), s. 156–73, 2002. DOI: 10.1076/jhin.11.2.156.15196. PMID: 12122807.
↑van Gieson I. Laboratory notes of technical methods for the nervous system. N Y Med J 50, s. 57, 1889
↑A handbook of pathological anatomy and histology, with an introductory section on post-mortem examinations and the methods of preserving and examining diseased tissues (1897) s. 393
↑Oppenheim H. Diseases of the nervous system; a text-book for students and practitioners of medicine. Philadelphia and London, J.B. Lippincott company 1904 s. 260
↑Robert W. Rieber, Flora Rheta Schreiber: The Bifurcation of the Self: The History and Theory of Dissociation and Its Disorders. Birkhäuser, 2006 ISBN 0-387-27413-8 p. 28
↑Robert J. Desnick, Michael M. Kaback: Tay-Sachs disease. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001, s. 13-14. ISBN 0-12-017644-0.